Everything about The Pontifex Maximus totally explained
The
Pontifex Maximus was the high priest of the
Ancient Roman College of Pontiffs. This was the most important position in the
Ancient Roman religion, open only to
patricians until 254 BC, when a
plebeian first occupied this post. A distinctly religious office under the early
Roman Republic, it gradually became politicized until, beginning with
Augustus, it was subsumed into the Imperial office. Its last use with reference to the emperors is in inscriptions of
Gratian, Emperor from 375 to 383, who, however, then decided to omit the words "pontifex maximus" from his title.
It is often said that
Pope Damasus I, Bishop of Rome from 366 to 384 and so for the whole of the reign of Gratian, was the first pope to use the title "Pontifex Maximus", but no document is cited in support of this statement. Emperor
Theodosius's edict
De fide catholica
of
27 February 380 refers to Damasus as a "pontifex", not as the "Pontifex Maximus". It is at a much later stage in history that the title "Pontifex Maximus" appears on buildings, monuments and coins of a specific pope of
Renaissance and modern times.
Etymology
According to the usual interpretation, the term
pontifex literally means "bridge-builder" (
pons +
facere); "maximus" literally means "greatest". This was perhaps originally meant in a literal sense: the position of bridge-builder was indeed an important one in Rome, where the major
bridges were over the
Tiber, the sacred river (and a deity): only prestigious authorities with sacral functions could be allowed to "disturb" it with mechanical additions. However, it was always understood in its symbolic sense as well: the pontifices were the ones who smoothed the bridge between gods and men (Van Haeperen). The great teachers of
Jainism are known as Tirthankaras, a word that literally means "ford-makers".
An alternative view is that
pontifex means "preparer of the road", derived from the Etruscan word
pont, meaning "road". Other members of this
priesthood included the
Flamines (each devoted to a major deity), and the
Vestales. During the early Republic, the Pontifex Maximus selected the members to hold these posts. However, there were many other religious officials, including the
Augures and
Haruspices (two originally Etruscan types of reading of the will of the gods: from the flight and conduct of birds viz. the entrails of sacrificial animals),
Fetiales and many other colleges and individual offices.
The official residence of the Pontifex Maximus was the Domus Publica which stood between the House of the Vestal Virgins and the Via Sacra, close to the Regia, in the Roman Forum. His religious duties were carried out from the Regia or 'house of the king'.
Unless the
pontifex maximus was also a magistrate at the same time, he wasn't allowed to wear the toga praetexta, for example toga with the purple border. However, he could be recognized by the iron knife (secespita) and the distinctive robes or toga with part of the mantle covering the head.
The Pontifex wasn't simply a priest. He had both political and religious authority. It isn't clear which of the two came first or had the most importance. In practice, particularly during the late Republic, the office of Pontifex Maximus was generally held by a member of a politically prominent family. It was a coveted position mainly for the great prestige it confers on the holder; Julius Caesar became pontifex in 73 BC and pontifex maximus in 63 BC. Being Pontifex Maximus wasn't a full-time job and didn't preclude the office-holder from holding a secular magistracy or serving in the military.
The most recent general study of the pontifical college (Van Haeperen 2002), omits the earliest periods of Roman history, as too little is known. The major Roman source,
Varro's book on the pontiffs, is lost: only a little of it survives in
Aulus Gellius and
Nonius Marcellus. More information is to be found in remarks by
Cicero,
Livy,
Dionysius of Halicarnassus,
Valerius Maximus, in Plutarch's
vita of
Numa Pompilius, Festus' summaries of
Verrius Flaccus, and in later writers. Some of these sources present an extensive list of everyday actions that were
taboo for the Pontifex Maximus; it seems difficult to reconcile these lists with evidence that many Pontifices Maximi were prominent members of society who lived normal, non-restricted lives.
Election and number of pontifices
The number of Pontifices, (s)elected by
co-optatio (i.e the remaining members nominate their new colleague) for life, was originally five, including the
pontifex maximus. The
lex Ogulnia also increased the number of pontiffs to nine (the
pontifex maximus included). In
104 BC the
lex Domitia prescribed that the election would henceforward be voted by the
comitia tributa (an assembly of the people divided into voting districts); by the same law, only 17 of the 35 tribes of the city could vote. This law was abolished in 81 BC by
Sulla in
lex Cornelia de Sacerdotiis, which restored to the great priestly colleges their full right of
co-optatio (Liv. Epit. 89; Pseudo-Ascon. in Divinat. p102, ed. Orelli; Dion Cass. xxxvii.37). Also under Sulla, the number of pontifices was increased to fifteen, the
pontifex maximus included. In 63 BC, when Julius Caesar was Pontifex Maximus, the law of Sulla was abolished and a modified form of the
lex Domitia was reinstated providing for election by
comitia tributa once again but Marcus Antonius later restored the right of
co-optatio to the college (Dion Cass. xliv.53). Also under
Julius Caesar, the number of pontifices were increased to sixteen, the pontifex maximus included. The number of pontifices varied during the empire but is believed to have been regular at fifteen.
Duties
The main duty of the Pontifices was to maintain '
pax deorum' or 'peace of the gods'.
The immense authority of the sacred college of pontiffs was centered on the Pontifex Maximus, the other pontifices forming his
consilium or advising body. His functions were partly sacrificial or ritualistic, but these were the least important. His real power lay in the administration of
jus divinum or divine law; the information collected by the pontifices related to the Roman religious tradition was bound in a
corpus which summarized
dogma and other concepts. The chief departments of
jus divinum may be described as follows:
- The regulation of all expiatory ceremonials needed as a result of pestilence, lightning, etc.
- The consecration of all temples and other sacred places and objects dedicated to the gods by the state through its magistracies.
- The regulation of the calendar; both astronomically and in detailed application to the public life of the state.
- The administration of the law relating to burials and burying-places, and the worship of the Manes or dead ancestors.
- The superintendence of all marriages by conferratio, for example originally of all legal patrician marriages.
- The administration of the law of adoption and of testamentary succession.
The pontifices had many relevant and prestigious functions such as being in charge of caring for the state archives, the keeping the official minutes of elected magistrates (see
Fasti) and list of magistrates, and they kept the records of their own decisions (
commentarii) and of the chief events of each year, the so-called "public diaries", the
Annales maximi.
The pontifex maximus is also subject to several taboos. Among them is the prohibition from leaving Italy. However, Plutarch described
Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica Serapio (141 - 132 BC) as the first to leave Italy and thus break the sacred taboo after being forced by the Senate to leave Italy.
Publius Licinius Crassus Dives Mucianus (132 - 130 BC) was the first to leave Italy voluntarily. Afterwards it became common and no longer against the law for the pontifex maximus to leave Italy. Among the most notable of which was
Julius Caesar (63 - 44 BC).
The Pontifices were in charge of the
Roman calendar and determined when
intercalary days needed to be added to sync the calendar to the seasons. Since the Pontifices were often politicians, and because a Roman magistrate's term of office corresponded with a calendar year, this power was prone to abuse: a Pontifex could lengthen a year in which he or one of his political allies was in office, or refuse to lengthen one in which his opponents were in power. Under his authority as Pontifex Maximus,
Julius Caesar introduced the calendar reform that created the
Julian calendar, with a fault under a day per century, easily corrected by a modification of the rules for
bisextile days (only added in a leap-year) to produce our present
Gregorian calendar.
Under the Roman Empire
After Caesar's assassination in 44 BC, his ally
Marcus Aemilius Lepidus was selected as Pontifex Maximus. Though Lepidus eventually fell out of political favor and was sent into exile as
Augustus consolidated power, he retained the priestly office until his death in 13 BC, at which point Augustus was selected to succeed him and given the right to appoint other pontifices. Thus, from the time of Augustus, the election of pontifices ended and membership into the sacred college was deemed a sign of imperial favour., or more probably in 383 when a delegation of pagan senators implored him to restore the Altar of Victory in the Senate House.
Catholic use of the title
In Catholic circles, when
Tertullian, a
Montanist, furiously applied the term to
Pope Callixtus I, with whom he was at odds,
c. 220, over Callixtus's relaxation of the Church's penitential discipline, allowing repentant adulterers and fornicators back into the Church, under his Petrine authority to "bind and loosen," it was in bitter irony:
» "In opposition to this [modesty], could I not have acted the dissembler? I hear that there has even been an edict sent forth, and a peremptory one too. The 'Pontifex Maximus,' that's the 'bishop of bishops,' issues an edict: 'I remit, to such as have discharged [therequirements of] repentance, the sins both of adultery and of fornication.' O edict, on which can't be inscribed, 'Good deed!' … Far, far from Christ's betrothed be such a proclamation!" (Tertullian,
On Modesty ch. 1)
It isn't clear if the word
Pontifex was commonly used by early 3rd-century
Christianity, as it was later, to denote a
bishop. Tertullian's usage is unusual in that most of the technical terms of Roman paganism were avoided in the vocabulary of Christian
Latin in favour of
neologisms or
Greek words.
The last traces of emperors being at the same time chief pontiffs are found in inscriptions of Valentinian, Valens, and Gratianus (Orelli, Inscript. n1117, 1118). From the time of
Theodosius I (379–395), the emperors no longer appear in the dignity of pontiff; but the title was later applied to the Christian bishop of Rome. In 382, the
Emperor Gratian, at the urging of
St. Ambrose, removed the
Altar of Victory from the Forum, withdrew the state subsidies that funded many pagan activities and formally renounced the title of Pontifex Maximus. It is said that
Pope Damasus I was the first Bishop of Rome to assume the title, Other sources say that the use of such titles by bishops, including the Bishop of Rome, came later. The title pontifex continued to be a title for both the bishop of Rome and other bishops. In Emperor Theodosius's edict
De fide catholica of
27 February 380, enacted in Thessalonica and published in Constantinople for the whole empire, by which he established Catholic Christianity as the official religion of the empire, he referred to Damasus as a
pontifex,while calling Peter an
episcopus : "... the profession of that religion which was delivered to the Romans by the divine Apostle Peter, as it has been preserved by faithful tradition and which is now professed by the
Pontiff Damasus and by Peter,
Bishop of Alexandria ... We authorize the followers of this law to assume the title Catholic Christians ..." Some see in this an implied significant differentiation, but the title
pontifex maximus isn't used in the text;
pontificem is used instead: "... quamque
pontificem damasum sequi claret et petrum alexandriae
episcopum..." (Theodosian Code XVI.1.2; and Sozomen, "Ecclesiastical History", VII, iv. ).
Without quoting its source, the Encyclopædia Britannica attributes to
Pope Leo I (440-461) the assumption of the title
Pontifex Maximus. This was a time when the declining Roman Empire was in transition from pagan to Christian, and Constantinople would begin to assert itself to pre-eminence, historically leading to conflict with the Bishops of Rome. Soon there would be the final collapse of the Roman Empire with the invasions of the
Huns and the
Vandals. Others say, again without quoting documentary evidence, that it was more than a century later when for the first time a Pope (
Gregory I) employed
"Pontifex Maximus"
While the title
Pontifex Maximus has for some centuries been used in inscriptions referring to the Popes, it has never been included in the official list of papal titles published in the
Annuario Pontificio, which instead includes "Supreme Pontiff of the whole Church" (in Latin,
Summus Pontifex Ecclesiae Universalis) as the fourth official title, the first being "Bishop of Rome".
The terms
pontifex maximus and
summus pontifex were for centuries used not only of the Bishop of Rome but of other bishops also. Hilary of Arles (d. 449) is styled "summus pontifex" by Eucherius of Lyons (P. L., L, 773), and Lanfranc is termed "primas et pontifex summus" by his biographer, Milo Crispin (P. L., CL, 10); they were doubtless originally employed with reference to the Jewish high-priest, whose place the Christian bishops were regarded as holding each in his own diocese (I Clement 40), but from the eleventh century they appear to be applied only to the Pope.
The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church says that it was in the fifteenth century that "Pontifex Maximus" became a regular title of honour for Popes.
After Christ himself, the
pope is the "high priest" (the veritable meaning of
summus pontifex and "pontifex maximus") of the Catholic religion.
The title of "Pontifex Maximus", which is now applied to the pope, has a very ancient history, dating back to the times of the
Roman Republic. The only title applied to the Pope that has a longer documented history is the word "pope" itself (in Greek, "πάππας"), which is found already in the time of
Homer. This title too isn't included in the official list of his titles.
The title Pontifex Maximus was briefly used, from 1902 to 1906, by the head of the Philippine Independent Church.
Tradition of sovereign as high priest
The practice of religious and secular authority united in the sovereign has a long history. In ancient Athens, the Archon basileus was the principal religious dignitary of the state; according to legend, and as indicated in his title of "Basileus" (meaning "king"), he was supposed to inherit the religious functions of the king of Athens in earlier times.
Eastern traditions, from the ancient Egyptian to the Japanese, carried the concept even further, according their sovereigns demigod status.
With the adoption of Christianity, the Roman emperors took it on themselves to issue decrees on matters regarding the Christian Church. Unlike the Pontifex Maximus, they didn't themselves function as priests, but they acted practically as head of the official religion, a tradition that continued with the Byzantine emperors. In line with the theory of Moscow as the Third Rome, the Russian Tsars exercised supreme authority over the Russian Orthodox Church.
With the English Reformation, the sovereign of England became Supreme Governor of the Church of England and insisted on being recognised as such. Only at a later stage was effective separation of church and state introduced. Much the same occurred in other countries affected by the Protestant Reformation.
Even in countries where there was no formal break with the Holy See, various sovereigns assumed similar authority. An example is Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor, whose ecclesiastical policy is described in the Catholic Encyclopedia article on him.
A secular equivalent of the ruler as head of religion is that of the philosopher king, based on a notion in Plato's Republic. Several rulers have been pictured as, at least to some extent, embodying that concept. Some of them are listed in Philosopher king#Historical philosopher-kings.
Incomplete list of Pontifices Maximi
753 BC to 712 BC - Duties and power of office (even if perhaps not the title) held by the Kings of Rome
712 BC - Numa Marcius
...
509 BC - Papirius
...
449 BC - Furius
431 BC - Cornelius Cossus
420 BC - Minucius
390 BC - Follius Flaccinator
...
332 BC - Cornelius Callissa
304 BC - Cornelius Scipio Barbatus, possibly Lucius Cornelius Scipio Barbatus
...
254 BC - Tiberius Coruncanius
243 BC - Lucius Caecilius Metellus (d. 221 BC), resigned or removed from office circa 237 BC.
237 BC - Lucius Cornelius Lentulus Caudinus (d. ca 213 BC)
212 BC - Publius Licinius Crassus Dives (d. 183 BC),
183 BC - Gaius Servilius Geminus (d. 180 BC), possibly Gaius Servilius C.f. Geminus
180 BC - Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (d. 152 BC)
152 BC - Vacant
150 BC - Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica Corculum (d. 141 BC)
141 BC - Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica Serapio (d. 132 BC Pergamum, Asia Minor)
132 BC - Publius Licinius Crassus Dives Mucianus (killed in battle 131 BC, Asia Minor)
130 BC - Publius Mucius Scaevola (d. 115 BC or 113 BC)
115 BC - Lucius Caecilius Metellus Dalmaticus,
103 BC - Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus (d. 88 BC)
89 BC - Quintus Mucius Scaevola (murdered 82 BC in the Temple of Vesta)
81 BC - Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius (d. ca 63 BC)
63 BC - Gaius Julius Caesar
44 BC - Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, triumvir (d. 13 BC),
6 March 12 BC - Augustus
12 BC to AD 376 - Held by the Emperors
From some indeterminate later date to present, the title "Pontifex Maximus" is applied to the Popes.
Popular culture
In the Protestant Evangelical fiction series Left Behind, Cardinal Peter Mathews is named Pontifex Maximus of Enigma Babylon One World Faith, established by Global Community Supreme Potentate and Antichrist Nicolae Carpathia.
In C. S. Lewis's Christian novel The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Aslan refers to himself as "the great Bridge-Builder", the literal English translation of Pontifex Maximus.
The white supremacist group the World Church of the Creator referred to their leader Matt Hale as 'Pontifex Maximus'.
Further Information
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